Tomorrow the wonderful Lauren Laverne will rip open an envelope and announce the albums that make up this year’s Mercury Prize shortlist. It will be predictably unpredictably- if that is possible – with nods to a folk album or two, a bit of jazz and classical and maybe something completely off the wall. But making the running will be the …

Ever wondered who were the very first band to play your favourite music festival? Who kicked off the shenanigans at Glastonbury back in 1970, or who preceded all the greats at Monterey and Woodstock? And what ever happened to them? Did they achieve greatness or become a musical footnote just dragged out in features like this? Here are your answers. …

I have been listening a fair bit to the new album Inventions from the ultra cool Nashville psych band The Sufis and been scratching my head to work out what their key influences are. Sure there’s plenty of Revolver era Beatles, and they have obviously mastered all the key elements of the Syd Barrett songbook. There’s also a whiff of …

If you like a Beatley melody, some twangy guitar, a smidgen of sitar and the odd bonkers middle eight 2013 has been a vintage year so far. The rush of new psych bands that emerged in 2012 has blossomed into a worldwide movement. And it isn’t all about 60 re-treads. Some of the new bands are clearly inspired by this …

When Paul McCartney left The Beatles in 1970 he decided to drop out of public life for a while. Taking his wife and children Macca headed off to his newly bought farm house in the Mull of Kintrye to raise sheep, walk on the beach and pen gentle folky ditties. It wasn’t until a year later in 1971 when the …

The Don of Disco; the Patriarch of Pop: you love Nile Rodgers’ music even if you don’t know the man behind the tunes. It occurred to me and my pals that a beast of an all-night house party playlist we’d put together was unwittingly made up of at least 50% Rodgers related tracks, be they from his Chic days, the …

Once Scott Walker was among the most reclusive pop stars with a profile that rivalled Syd Barrett. These days however, he seems a lot happier chatting to people about his music and his ideas. There has been one area though which has been pretty much no go for awhile and that is live dates. Back in 2008 Walker did organise …

Everyone knows that The Rolling Stones are the main attraction at Glastonbury this weekend. However the internet has been awash with rumours that a certain other vintage pop star who is on the comeback trail, might play a secret set at the fest. Yep William Hill is offering odds of 6/1 on David Bowie playing Glasto with him at 10/1 …

Essex has a bit of form when it comes to delivering maverick pop geniuses with a gift for mixing a smidgeon of music hall with a dash of 60s pop and creating inspired, but intelligent tunes. And the latest to join such luminaries as Ian Dury, Jake Shillingford and Damon Albarn is Blow Up record’s new signing Southend boy David …

In case it has escaped your attention there is a bit of psych revival going on at the moment with thousands of bands from all across their world aping their 60s heroes in creating trippy, yet hook-filled soundscapes. A lot of those bands take the easy route and splice a dreamy melody to a driving beat before drenching it all …

Of course we all know that See Emily Play is one of the best singles of the 60s and that Dark Side Of The Moon still outsells just about everyone apart from One Direction. And also that Comfortably Numb and Wish You Were Here are rock classics of the highest order. But now that the entire Pink Floyd catalogue has …

There is a small but rather impressive list of bands who haven’t yet made their music available to streaming service Spotify. The Beatles top the list, alongside Led Zep and Oasis. but one band who up until now had resisted making their music available on the service have finally changed their mind. In a short period of time (hopefully, more …

The BBC’s Horrible Histories has had some wonderful musical parodies in the past (the theory of evolution set to Bowie’s Changes springs to mind) but this one is something else. A chronological account of the life of Charles Dickens set to the music of The Smiths. It is spot on too. The level of detail is superb, the Morrissey style …

As you all know West Germany during the 1970s was an explosion of musical creativitiy as bands like Can, Neu and Amon Duul married wonderful meandering psychedelic melodies to that very special Motorik Kraut Rock Groove. As for East Germany. Well the music soundtrack was just a little more conservative. With a totalitarian Communist government running the show and the …

Barely a day seems to go by at the moment without some great new psych music arriving on Spotify, Bandcamp, YouTube or (gosh) vinyl. So I have rounded up 10 of the best recent releases (plus one bonus one) and included videos, embeds or links if they exist. So without further ado – here you go. The Sudden Death Of …

The Stones Roses play two dates at London’s Finsbury Park this weekend. Simon Poulter got a sneak preview at La Cigale in Paris. They came from the north, they came from the south. They came for the day by Eurostar, they came for the evening by Metro. Their hair may have been greying, their kids may have been at home, …

In my opinion one of the best records of the 1980s was The Three O’Clock’s incendiary debut EP come LP Baroque Hoedown. And that LP climaxed with one of their finest tunes – a slow burning droney slice of psych called As Real As Real . Well the band’s recent rebirth – which includes festival appearances in the US and …

** UPDATE Well I think I can safely declare Spain and The Chemistry Set as winners of the inagural Eurovision Psych Contest. They finished well clear of Beaulieu Porch – flying the Union Jack – in second and The Sudden Death of Stars from France who finished third just ahead of Switzerland’s Balduin. Thanks to everyone who voted. All the …

Simon Poulter of What Would David Bowie Do? salutes the barnstorming return to form that is Primal Scream’s new album More Light These are bleak and desperate times, people. We know this because we keep being told they are. As if the sight of increasingly vacant high streets, lengthening dole queues, a largely old Etonian government in Britain (run by …